Internationalism

Was the theme to last night's Yonge-Eglinton Toastmasters meeting.
I was invited to join the online TM as it was fashioned slightly differently from normal; in the sense that instead of the normal format of a meeting with three speakers, evaluations for each speech, table topics, evaluation revision and wrap up...this one was purely 5 speakers and Table Topic responses speaking in their native language (hence Internationalis-tic.)

AJ was the 1st speaker who spoke 'On diversity' in Arabic; followed by Jenny who presented 'L'importance du francais' in French; Winnie introduced 'Fun Facts About Kenya' in Swahili (with a fantastic slide presentation that were colorful, full of explanation and information which was especially useful in getting the jist of her speech); Sangeeta speaking on 'Hindi' dressed in the beautifully colorful garb as well as an appearance by her son; with Edmar wrapping up with 'I am an African Child' in 4 dialects (Isizulu/Isidebele/Setswana/Ikalanga) with very expressive and amazing facial expressions, whoooooa...impressive!!!!

Kwanta chaired the Table Topics - International Events/International Foods/Wonders of the World with a game of 'spin the wheel' with these participants:
Ruth speaking on the Calgary Stampede in Spanish; Mani on 'Spring Rolls' in Farsi; Emily on the 'Leaning Tower of Pisa' in French; Aleks on delicious 'Lobster Rolls' in Polish; Rosa on the decadent 'Poutine' in Cantonese; Anand on 'The Great Barrier Reef' in French; Cathy on the 'Great Wall of China' in Korean and Karen's thoughts on 'Churros and Choc' in Italian!
Ruth wrapped up the meeting with thank you's!

As well, I was finally able to see the zoom recording of Wongie's reading at an 'Emerging Writers' Reading Series' presentation, an excerpt from her current work in progress that delves into the coves of Kensington Market area in China town (which also had some Cantonese characters in the reading) I had missed last Monday (June 8th) due to technological issues, not to mention she was the first speaker and of course I caught everyone else's...she's such a fabulous reader, I was completely enthralled and following along so that when she was finished, it totally left me hanging!!! Ah well, something to look forward to see when the pandemic has passed!